1. Better Training for Safer Food Initiative
BTSF
Wild Boar ecology
Tomasz Podgórski
This presentation is delivered under contract with the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency ( The content of this presentation is the sole responsibility of Opera S.u.r.l., the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Lombardia e Emilia Romagna and the State Food and Veterinary Service of Latvia and it can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union. The Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union will not be responsible under any circumstances for the contents of communication items prepared by the contractors.

2. Wild Boar
The wild boar (Sus scrofa), also known as the wild swine or Eurasian wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia, North Africa, and the Greater Sunda Islands.

3. Wild boar

4. Angle of Occipital wall
< 90º
> 90º
= 90º
Angle of Occipital wall
Wild Boar
Domestic
Feral

5. Depth of Dorsal Profile

6. Central European boar
A medium-sized, dark to rusty-brown haired subspecies with long and relatively narrow lacrimal bones
Northern Spain, northern Italy, France, Germany, Benelux, Croatia, Belarus, Denmark (few), Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and possibly Albania

7. Ecology
The wild boar inhabits a diverse array of habitats from boreal taigas to deserts.
In mountainous regions, it can even occupy alpine zones, occurring up to 1,900 metres in the Carpathians, 2,600 metres in the Caucasus and up to 3,600-4,000 metres in the mountains in Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
The main habitats favored by boars in Europe are deciduous and mixed forests, with the most favorable areas consisting of forest composed of oak and beech enclosing marshes and meadows.
Wild boar is now well adapted to agricultural landscape, can live most of the year in the corn field

8. Ecology
In the Białowieża Forest, the animal's primary habitat consists of well developed, broad-leaved and mixed forests, along with marshy mixed forests, with coniferous forests and undergrowth's being of secondary importance.
Wild boar are known to be competent swimmers, capable of covering long distances. In 2013, one boar was reported to have completed the seven mile swim from France to Alderney in the Channel Islands. Due to concerns about disease it was shot and incinerated.

9. Diet
The wild boar is a highly versatile omnivore, whose diversity in choice of food rivals that of humans.
A 50 kg boar needs around 4,000-4,500 calories of food per day, though this required amount increases during winter and pregnancy, with the majority of its diet consisting of food items dug from the ground like underground plant material and burrowing animals.

10. Infected meat as a source of new infections – wild boar and pigs
2. Meat products in the garbage

11. How far can wild boar move? Example of Bulgaria

17. 4 years old female
Tracked for 87 days
Positons received: 2149
Home range: 7 km2

18. 1 hour resolution movements of a tracked wild boar sow in Bulgaria
Daytime
Nighttime
Future
farrowing
area
Escaping
hunting
WB normally small home ranges ( km2);
Disrupted by only food availability or disturbance
1 hour resolution movements of a tracked wild boar sow in Bulgaria

19. 4 different groups of wild boar overlapping…..

20. 23 km How far can wild boar go?
This is escape movement from hunting, spent 3-months away from the home range

21. Long-distance movements in Białowieża Forest, NE Poland
But most animals are sendentary and long distance movements <10%

22. Wild boars – social behaviour♂ ♀
Boars are typically social animals, living in female-dominated sounders consisting of barren sows and mothers with young led by an old matriarch.
Male boars leave their sounder at the age of 8–15 months, while females either remain with their mothers or establish new territories nearby.
Sub adult males may live in loosely knit groups, while adult and elderly males tend to be solitary outside the breeding season.

23. Behavior and Lifestyle
Wild Boar are nocturnal animals that only come out at night to forage for food.
Female’s are relatively sociable animals, inhabiting loose territories in groups known as sounders which can contain between 6 and 30 individuals.
Males however, are solitary for the majority of the year, with the exception of during the breeding season when they can be found in close proximity of both the sounders, and indeed other males. Male Wild Boar compete with one another by fighting for the chance to mate with a female.

24. Life-cycle

25. Diseases Classical swine fever African swine fever PRRS Anthrax
Pseudorabies (Aujeszky’s disease)
Swine brucellosis
Influenza
Tularemia
West Nile virus
E. coli
Salmonella
Trichinosis
Streptococcus
Ticks, fleas, lice
Internal parasites
Toxoplasmosis and Trichinosis
Classical swine fever
African swine fever
PRRS
Anthrax
Foot and mouth disease
Porcine circovirus

26. African swine fever in wild boar – risk factors
Presence of the virus;
Size of the population;
Density of the population;
Size and density define the wild boar geographical distribution;
Age and gender of the infected wild boar population;
Type of hunting;
Period of the year during which the virus has been detected/introduced.

27. Wild boar density

28. Can we control the hunters?

29. Wild boar density - how to estimate??

30. Estimation methods Other estimation methods: • indirect :
– snow traces calculation,
– faces groups calculation (moose's);
• direct :
– annual observation,
– counting in habitats,
– counting of animals entering open areas,
– aerial surveys (open areas),
– thermal counting (deer's and moose's).

31. Wild boar density - how to estimate??

32. Wild boar density Do we really know??
2014
2015
2016
No of WB counted in Lithuania
22325
27497
19699
No of hunted WB during a season (data presented 15/04) in Lithuania
50172
48317
42188
Estimates are done in late winter and counts only adults and last year offspring/yearlings, hence hunting bag is so much higher

33. ASF distribution in wild boar since 2007

34. Continuous awareness campaigns should be foreseen for hunters for informing about the new strategy and the intended goals so to encourage the participation of hunters in the strategy.

35. Hunting methods Driven hunt
Pros (efficient) and cons (disturbance and environmental contamination)

36. Hunting methods Solo hunt
Not disturbant, can be much more selective (e.g targeting females)

37. Thank you for attention! Questions?

38. This presentation is delivered under contract with the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency ( The content of this presentation is the sole responsibility of Opera S.u.r.l., the Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale Lombardia e Emilia Romagna and the State Food and Veterinary Service of Latvia and it can in no way be taken to reflect the views of the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union. The Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency or any other body of the European Union will not be responsible under any circumstances for the contents of communication items prepared by the contractors.
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European Commission Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency DRB A3/042 L-2920 Luxembourg